Dakota Winds is situated on the south side of a sacred and enchanted mountain that is cherished and protected by the Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne Indians.
Bear Butte is a dormant volcano rising out of the prairie of South Dakota. It is made of magma that never reached the surface to generate an eruption. The magma intruded to a shallow level and then stopped, cooled, crystallized and solidified. Erosion then stopped the overlaying layers of rock away. Bear Butte is at the east end of a linear belt of volcanic centers that continues that continues westward about 60 miles to Devil's Tower.

Bear Butte was established as State Park in 1961. An important landmark an religious site for Plains Indian tribes long before Europeans reached South Dakota. Bear Butte is called Mato Paha or Bear Mountain by the Lakota Sioux. To the Cheyenne it is Noahvose, the place where Maheo (God) imparted the knowledge from which the Cheyenne derive their religious, political, social and economic customs. The mountain is sacred to many indigenous peoples.
The mountain is a place of prayer meditation and peace.